Colin Kaepernick's grievance with the NFL is over, but his fight to play football in the NFL remains an ongoing battle.
After Kaepernick and Eric Reid reached a confidential resolution with the NFL that put an end to their collusion grievances on Friday, their lawyer, Mark Geragos, provided a reminder that while Reid has found a home in Carolina with the Panthers -- he signed a three-year deal last week after spending most of the 2018 season with them -- Kaepernick remains unsigned even though he has a strong desire to play quarterback in the NFL again.
"He absolutely wants to play," Geragos told CNN on Saturday. "He wants to compete at the highest level."
Kaepernick hasn't played in the NFL since the 2016 season, after which he opted out of his contract with the 49ers, who were planning to cut him. Since then, Kaepernick's really only been seriously connected to two teams, the Ravens and the Seahawks, neither of whom ended up signing him. The AAF -- a spring league that gives all of its players three-year, non-guaranteed $250,000 contracts -- spoke to Kaepernick to gauge his interest level, but the AAF's inaugural season is underway without Kaepernick's involvement.
But Geragos actually believes Kaepernick's wait will end soon, telling CNN that he thinks a team will sign Kaepernick within the next two weeks.
"I think you're going to see within the next two weeks that somebody is going to step up, somebody is going to do the right thing, and you want me to predict who?" Geragos said.
After already naming the Panthers as "the natural place to be" considering they've already signed Reid and quarterback Cam Newton dealt with a shoulder injury for much of last season that forced him to undergo surgery less than a month ago, Geragos offered another bold prediction. He considers the Patriots a possible landing spot.
"I will tell you that besides the Panthers, it would not surprise me if [Patriots owner] Bob Kraft makes a move," Geragos said, adding that "it would not surprise me if his former coach ... also makes a move."
By former coach, Geragos could be talking about Texans coach Bill O'Brien, Lions coach Matt Patricia or new Dolphins coach Brian Flores. All three coaches spent time in New England as assistants.
The Dolphins would be an interesting fit for Kaepernick because they're expected to move on from long-time quarterback Ryan Tannehill this offseason. While Kaepernick remains one of the most-talented quarterbacks who will be available to sign this offseason, it's worth remembering that for most of the past two years, Kaepernick has been the most-talented quarterback available to sign, and a number of teams have passed on him. The list of teams include the Dolphins, who lost Tannehill to a torn ACL just before the 2017 season and decided to sign Jay Cutler, who had experience with then-coach Adam Gase, instead of Kaepernick. So, the Dolphins have already had the chance to sign Kaepernick, but declined to do so. That doesn't mean they'd refuse his services again, but it is worth remembering. While the Dolphins need to pursue a long-term solution at quarterback, they could use Kaepernick as a bridge starter.
As pointed out to me on Twitter, Geragos might've also meant that one of Kaepernick's -- not Kraft's -- former coaches could bring him in, such as Jim Tomsula, who is in Washington as the Redskins' defensive line coach. Given the Alex Smith injury situation, the Redskins need a quarterback for next season, but they already passed on signing Kaepernick when Smith initially went down in November.
Let's get back to the Patriots, though, because that's clearly the most interesting landing spot that Geragos offered.
Obviously, Kaepernick would need to be OK with sitting behind 41-year-old Tom Brady, who just won his sixth Super Bowl with the Patriots. If Kaepernick is willing to be a backup, there's no doubt he'd be a better option for the Patriots than Brian Hoyer in the sense that if Brady were to go down with an injury, it's Kaepernick who would give the Patriots a better chance of staying afloat. The Patriots demonstrated the ability to be adaptive to different styles of quarterbacking during Brady's Deflategame suspension, switching from Jimmy Garoppolo to Jacoby Brissett seamlessly. There's no reason why they couldn't do it again with Kaepernick.
Bill Belichick, Brady, and Kraft have all maintained friendships with Donald Trump, who has been overtly critical of Kaepernick and the movement he started that has continued on without him, but the Patriots are also an organization that always finds ways to gain advantages over their competitors. Signing a starting-caliber quarterback as a backup to the greatest quarterback of all time would certainly be an advantage.
This isn't the first time that Geragos has both predicted Kaepernick would get signed soon and named the Patriots as a possible destination. He made a similar prediction in September. Five months later, Kaepernick remains unsigned.
Given how the last two years have gone for Kaepernick, it seems unlikely that Geragos' bold prediction will come true this time around.
